The Daily Oklahoman from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma • 232

Pro Football 'An Awful, Awful Time' duration, established play Football Strike of '87 Was Powerful Stirring of Emotions ter the strike. He believes he By Larry Stone San Francisco Examiner Running back Del Rodgers crossed the football picket line hi 1987 to play for the San Francisco 49ers, and what did he get for it? A lifetime of shame and ostracism? Violent reprisals on the field? A quick ticket out of the game? Not by his ac pi ers who had crossed the picket line and replacement players who were retained. "There was some animosity toward some of the guys," recalled Fahnhorst. "But who knows? Hell, those guys probably made the smartest decision of all of us in retrospect I don't know if they could have made any other decision. "We cleared the air pretty good after we came back.

We had an ugly meeting or two, but we cleared the air, and we all realized guys had legitimate reasons for what they did. It worked out OK." Clark said most of the turmoil came during the strike when veteran players made the decision to return. "Before we went back, I told the players, 'I'm going. I've been out a week, and nothing seems to be happening. I'm going The hot conversation was then, and Ronnie Lott was very vocal about it.

He didn't agree. I said, "This is my decision, and this is what I'm Clark recalled one really heated meeting, once everyone came back, with Lott going against Francis, with Bill Walsh in the middle. "It was pretty heated. Everyone got it out and went forward from there." Francis has a slightly different recollection. "Ronnie gets heated with everyone," he said.

"We're still very good friends. I don't recall any animosity. It was Guy Mclntyre who got very heated with me. Guy and I went at it a couple of minutes. I tried to explain to a young player who had never expended a cent of his money that he had better do his homework before he spouted off." Said Clark: "The NFLPA is not like messing with the UAW or Teamsters.

Those are powerful people in the unions. These are football players. They're powerful on the field, but I'm not sure they're going to take a bat and break a windshield." to pay the rent and had not a cent to do it with. I have no regrets." Dwight Clark, now a 49ers executive, was at the opposite end of his career. He came back to work early, in a group that included Joe Montana and Roger Craig.

"You've been with these guys through so much, through so many battles, and here was a battle that separated us," recalls Clark. "It was really a difficult call. I was making $32,500 a week. I thought if I found a job after I quit that paid that much in a year, I'd be lucky. When I evaluated it all, I felt that for the sake of my family, I could not pass up $32,500 a week.

That was an awful, awful time." Clark says he doesn't know all the ins and outs of the baseball strike "but I know the mental battle of it, and what it feels like to go home with a wife and kids looking at me." Forty-four San Francisco players, including Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Jesse Sa-polu, Harris Barton, John Taylor and Steve Wallace, stayed out for the whole strike. But stars throughout the league crossed the picket line, including Tony Dorsett, Howie Long and Mark Gasti-neau. "We didn't have the support of the players," said former lineman Keith Fahn-horst, the 49ers union representative. "I think the reason was that the union never got the results. When I'm listening to some of the baseball players now talking about maybe not being able to make it, I can see even with a strong union that has results, guys get nervous and live beyond their means and may have to suffer the consequences, too." Placekicker Jeff Brock-haus was in replacement games but never played af was blacklisted.

"The guys who didn't stay on in the NFL were treated like the scabs they were," he said. "It was difficult from that point on to get on with a team, because you were one of 'those The stigma is there." Clark says the worst part about crossing a picket line is being called a scab. "That part bothered me more than anything. I hated doing it. I had to do it, but I wish all of that had never taken place.

But if I had to do it again, I would do it again." Montana's crossing particularly irked NFL strikers. The quarterback didn't belong to the union. He had pulled out in protest over way the previous union chief, Ed Garvey, handled the '82 strike. When Joe returned to play against Atlanta in the second strike game, striking Falcons were angry. "All I've got to say is football is a game of violence, and it can be pretty tough sometimes," said nose tackle Tony Casillas.

"It might be extra tough the day we play them." Defensive back Scott Case called Montana "a traitor and a scab." Other 49ers say the hostility died down in a hurry, largely because so many players wound up crossing the picket line. "I think players understood what Joe Montana gave to his team when he was playing," said former tight end Russ Francis. "He gave a fused back and numerous broken bones. He disagreed with the union position, and he had every right to do that." After the strike, there was tenseness in the merger of the three factions strikers who had stayed out for the count. The way Rodgers sees it, his three-game stint as a replacement player led to a Super Bowl ring.

Rodgers, cut from the 49ers in training camp that year, played well in replacement games, stuck with the team when the strike ended, and was on the 1988 team that beat the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XXffl. "It was a great experience," said Rodgers, now a TV sports anchor in Atlanta. "It gave me the opportunity to play after the strike. It was a new life for me. It worked out great." With baseball headed toward the same unsettling territory, it is instructive to look back at football players who lived through the strike of 1987, when owners used replacement games to their tremendous advantage.

The football strike lasted just 23 days, long enough for 261 players to cross the picket line and undermine the union effort. Baseball owners seem to believe the same dynamics will bring baseball players back to work next spring. "The toughest thing is not knowing where your next check is going to come from," said San Francisco tight end Brent Jones, a 1987 rookie who joined the team the day before the strike was called off. "It's all relative; whether you're making a lot or a little, right now, you're making no money, and you've still got bills to pay. I support all players, but there comes a point where you have to worry about yourself and your family.

I had HRbIS AP Photo an Diego quarterback Stan Humphries celebrates a 29-yard TD pass during the Chargers recent tune against the Los Angeles Raiders. i. Quarterback Play Key AFC Features New Look Playoff Teams Are Doing ft the NFC Way To Victory in San Diego SAN DIEGO (AP) Stan Humphries vs. Dan Marino won't generate near the hype that Ma- jno vs. Joe Montana aid last weeK.

'Still, San Diego's chances against the Miami of cartilage. "Physically, I can't say that any of the injuries have hampered the way that I've played at all," Humphries said. "If I've played bad, hey, I just played bad." He didn't really come around until the second half of a 38-15 loss to San Francisco on Dec. 11. In the last three games, Humphries completed 65 of 104 passes (62.5 percent) for 866 yards and five touchdowns, with two interceptions.

olphins could ride on Humphries' right arm. nd the Chargers' quarterback is on one of his od streaks going into Sunday Atv envision-round playoff game at Jack Murphy Stadi- "It's a good time now to start getting hot. umphries said, i el the last two or iree weeks or so like ve kind of gone back like it was the first ilx weeks of the sea- bn." was a big eason that tne unar- ers started 6-0. Like- ise, he wasn im- Miami (11-6) at San Diego (11-5) WHEN: 3 p.m. WHERE: Jack Murphy Stadium LAST WEEK: Dolphins 27, Chiefs 17; Chargers had bye.

LINE: San Diego by 3. TV, RADIO: KFOR; WWLS. ANALYSIS: Stan Humphries is playing like he did when the Chargers started the season 6-0. He is trying to become the first QB since Dan Fouts to take San Diego to the AFC Championship game. Dan Marino Is sure to be in the Hall of Fame someday but has not taken the Dolphins to the Super Bowl since the 1984 season.

Since Don Shula became the Dolphins' coach in 1970, they're 10-14 on the West Coast and 1-4 in playoffs out west. It's been 21 years since Miami won a post-season game on the road. The wlnless stretch Includes three West Coast losses, He tinisnea uie season with 3,209 yards, 17 TDs and 12 interceptions, and had the AFC's fifth-highest passer rating. Just as important, he rediscovered the long ball, throwing TD passes of 60 and 44 yards to Tony Martin in a 21-6 win at the New York Jets on Dec. 18.

"He's playing so well right now that it's not a matter of whether he's going to throw the ball correctly," Jefferson said, "it's just a matter of whoever he's throwing to une from a idseason funk that contributed to five playoffs? Aikman came out 4:29 earlier than he was supposed to against the Giants on Saturday, because Switzer saw him take a couple too many hits. Would anyone complain if the final game of the season was the final game of the exhibition season? For those three teams, that's what this weekend was. The 49ers' loss Monday night was the first of the season in their throwback uniforms. But teams that wore their throw-backs beyond the required two games did remarkably well, a combined 20-3, 23-4 if you count the Cowboys in their new "playoff uniforms." The winners: The 49ers, 10-0 before that last meaningless loss; The Giants, who won their last six wearing throwbacks; The Lions, 4-1 And the Cowboys 3-1. Moreover, the Lions' loss was to the 49ers and the Cowboys' loss was to the Giants.

The one loser? The Chargers wore those lightning bolts (by popular demand) one more time than required, and lost to the Raiders. The Philadelphia Eagles may come out just fine with the dismissal of Rich Kotite (and presumably Randall Cunningham) and the expected arrival of Dick Vermeil, But there's a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of coaches around the NFL about the way in which Lurie dealt with Kotite. First Lurie chose the week before the season to announce a bunch of salary slashes. That left the Eagles in disruption and thoy went out and lost to the Giants. Then they won seven of eight.

But even while they were doing it, Lurie was making it clear that Kotite had no future in Philadelphia, and that he wanted to put his own stamp on things (the name Jimmy Johnson kept coming up). The bottom line is that Lurie paid $185 million for the right to fire Kotite, certainly enough to give him the right to do what he wants. fosses in eight games. 5 But he came around sri time to lead San plego to the AFC West title, and now he's a Parcells, with two Super Bowl rings, is the obvious connection. But he also grabbed two of his '90 Giants as free agents, guard Bob Kratch and safety Myron Guyton.

Coaches? Romeo Crennel, Al Groh, Fred Hoaglin, Johnny Parker, Mike Sweatman and Charlie Weis were all with Parcells on the Giants. And Maurice Carthon, Parcells' junior assistant, was his fullback on both New York Super Bowl teams. But no Ray Handley. 5, Kansas City (9-7). One name jumps out at you: Joe Montana.

But beyond that are Paul Hackett, the offensive coordinator who worked with Montana in San Francisco, and cornerback Mark Collins, another of those 1986 and '90 Giants. And Marty Schottenheimer has always had the mind set of an NFC coach, emphasizing running dncl d6f6ns6 That leaves Miami. Even the Dolphins have their NFC refugees, Keith Jackson, the injured Keith Byars and Mark Ingram. Ingram? Yet another of those Giants, who struggled his way to a key first down to set up a touchdown in the 20-19 Super Bowl win over the Bills nearly four years ago. If you can't beat 'em, let 'em join you.

The NFL's three best teams lost last week, Mo surprise, The 49ers, Cowboys and Steelers clinched all they could clinch and all were playing against teams that had something to gain. As it turned out, no one was damaged. Even though the Giants beat Dallas, they missed the playoffs because Green Bay won. Had the Packers lost in Tampa, they really would have had no one to blame but them-sbIvos Still, it looks a little funny to watch Elvis Grbac throwing to Nate Singleton while Steve Young and Jerry Rico smile on the sidelines wearing baseball hats against a Minnesota team that is seeking to clinch the NFC Central. But what's George Selfert or Barry Switzer or Bill Cowher to do if he doesn't want a Young or Troy Alk-man or Rod Woodson hurt for the By Dave Goldberg AP Football Writer The AFC has finally figured out one formula for ending its 10-year Super Bowl drought: If you can't beat 'em, let 'em join you.

Of the six teams that made the playoffs in the AFC, five have direct ties to NFC Super Bowl winners. In fact, only Miami, the Dan Marino air show, can be considered an '80s-style AFC team. Three of the AFC playoff teams are offshoots of the 1986 and 1990 Giants New England (coach Bill Parcells), Cleveland (coach Bill Belichick, the defensive coordinator for those Giants), and Pittsburgh (offensive coordinator Ron Erhardt, who held the same position in the Meadowlands). But the ties go even deeper than that. To take it team-by-team: 1, Pittsburgh (12-4).

Erhardt's offense is the Giants offense smashmouth with Barry Foster and Bam Morris. Neil O'Donnell, the quarterback, is no Phil Simms, but he grew up in Madison, N.J., where the Giants train, and used to watch Simms and Parcells in training camp. The defense? Vintage Buddy Ryan, something like the blitzing defense of the 1985 Bears. And Tim McKyer, who won two rings with the 49ers, is the nickel back. 2, San Diego (11-5).

The San Diego Redskins. A team built by Bobby Beathard, who put together the three Washington teams that won Super Bowls between 1982 and 1991. Stan Humphries, the quarterback, was drafted by Beathard for Washington and was a member of that '91 team, The offense, with Natrone Means impersonating John Riggins, looks a lot like what Joe Gibbs used to run. 3, Cleveland (11-5). Not only is Belichick there, but so are two linebackers who won rings with the 1986 Giants, Carl Banks and Pepper Johnson.

There are three other players with rings garnered with NFC teams Mark Rypien and Earnest Byner from the Redskins and Don Griffin, who won two with the 49er. And Rod Dowhower, the quarterbacks coach, held the same position on the '01 Redskins. 4, New England (10-6). in away uum uwuiu- the tirst quarter- iack since Dan Fouts 1980 and 81 to take the Chargers as far as AFC championship game. "It 8 going to be kind ot hard to stop nun a.

1 1 rignt now Decause nis commence is naing ligh," receiver Shawn Jefferson said. ff thinU what hfl'a frviner tn Art la talfft thft am and just carry it. putting the team on his houlder, This will be the Chargers' first playoff game lnce Humphries threw four Interceptions in a 1-0 loss at Miami in tne divisional rouna two jasons ago. While the Chargers were Just hacoy to be in he playoffs back then, they expect a lot more is going to catch the ball." Marino is hot, too. Last Saturday he out-dueled Montana in a 27-17 first-round win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Although Marino is 0-3 at Jack Murphy Stadium, he's never had a bad day statistically here. The Chargers feel the best way to control Marino Is to keep him off the field, but Humphries said they can't go exclusively with running back Natrone Means. "You can't take the football and just say, here Natrone, here it is on first down, second down and third down, to keep them off the Humphries said. "You've still got to play your whole offense, you've still got to gamble with some passes here and there, and play-action and everything. "You've got to be able to put points on the board while you're keeping him off the field.

That didn't happen two years ago at Miami. Humphries was intercepted three times in the second quarter, and Marino answered each time with a touchdown pass for a 21-0 halftime can't turn the football over and give a guy like Marino a short distance to go," Humphries said. "I learned the hard way, and in a critical game." tow, II 1 I it. 1 "If something aion i nappen lor us 10 wm mis football game, then I don't think we a oe sans- ait nil." HURiDnries saia. "sure we naa a toeat year, we won the West, but hey, we've lone that before.

So that means we didn't ac-jompliah something better than we did in the past. "We ve naa a goou yi up num uw, uui nn nvar with." Humphries, suffered tear, tne mam one oeu ouw, irthe eighth game. He underwent arthroscopic lurgery a month later to remove a loose piece 1.